Here is the source for the `bells' story. I do not know where Abbot Philip's account is to be found: D & D say they found MSS in at least eleven collections. Perhaps someone can add this information (if only so that I can file it for next time this question comes up)
BYLAND BELLS
R.Dodsworth & W.Dugdale,
Monasticon Anglicanum..., London 1682vol 1 pp.775-79; also pp.1027-34 for Abbot Philip's
Fundatio Bellelandiae composed 1197*[Ampleforth Abbey copy, AP034 in 8C36 ]
p 1030a:
Intentio quidem & voluntas
Rogeri de Moubray fuit si fieri posset competenter, ut abbatia ex parte meridionali aquae de Rye construeretur, ad illum commodum et aisiamenta aquae per omnia habenda quae Ryevallenses percipiunt ex parte boriali. Sed litus loci ad hoc competere non potuit quoquam modo, similiter & domorum nimia propinquitas non sinebat, nam uterque conventus singulis horis diei & noctis campanas suas mutuo audire potuerunt, quod non decebat nec diu potuit aliqualiter sustineri.[Roger Mowbray wanted, if it could be done, to carry out his plan. This was that the Abbey should be built on the south side of the river Rye, so that it might enjoy the same convenience and various practical advantages of being near the water enjoyed by the monks of Rievaulx on the north side. However, the bank at this point was not in any way suitable, and anyway the undue nearness of the two monasteries did not allow such a scheme. The problem was that every time either community celebrated one of the Hours, both during the day and at night, they could hear each other's bells, and this was very unsuitable, and quite unendurable for any length of time.
25.12.1998
* We seem to have missed a centenary.
Anselm Cramer OSB
Ampleforth Abbey, York
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